Is it possible...?? (use 1 bluetooth keyboard mouse set with 2 computers)

[Betateam]

Is it possible to use 1 bluetooth keyboard mouse set with 2 computers?

I have a co-worker who has a Windows based laptop and a MacMini. She has a Microsoft keyboard/mouse combo. She can get it to work with either, but each time she switches with her KVM she has to re-pair the bluetooth. Is it possible to do it with both? I'm not thinking so, but I thought I'd ask the guru's.

Thanks

 

[yankeefan24]

wait, you want to be able to use the same keyboard at the same time with two computers or you want to find a way so that whenever the keyboard is in range it will automaticly pair. the first wont work, i don't believe the second one will work. btw, what's a kvm?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

KVM = Keyboard, Video, Mouse switch. One of the little boxes that let you use one keyboard, one mouse, and one monitor with two (or more) computersm, by switching between computers. For example, one of these.

As for using the same bluetooth equip on two computers? My Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple Wireless Mouse work fine on two separate computers, even pairing automatically. But the trick is that I have to have one of the comptuers Bluetooth turned off to guarantee that it pairs with the other computer. And if that was my only keyboard and mouse on one of the computers, it would mean I couldn't turn Bluetooth back on. (But mine are both laptops, so they both have internal kb/trackpads.)

And one of them is a PowerBook, the other is an XP-running PC. How do I get it to work? Well, I turn one of the two on, and hit a button on my keyboard, and click a button on my mouse. It then pairs with the computer that is turned on. If I want to use them with the other computer, I just turn Bluetooth off on the current one (either by disabling it, or turning the whole computer off,) then hit the mouse button and a button on the keyboard, and it finds the second computer. (This assumes that I have sucessfully paired each of them in the past...) Unfortunately, since the PowerBook supports wake-from-Bluetooth, I can't just put the PowerBook to sleep to 'disable' Bluetooth; I have to actually go to the Bluetooth status item and choose 'Turn Bluetooth Off'. With the PC, putting it to sleep is enough; since it can't wake from Bluetooth, the mouse and keyboard don't see the PC, and reconnect to the Mac.

(On an unrelated note: Since you can wake on Bluetooth, why can't Apple enable wake-on-LAN over AirPort?)

 

[mkrishnan]

I have my mouse (which is paired to both my iMac and my iBook) and my KB (which has only ever talked to my iMac) sit in front of the iBook, just a few cm away from the iMac. I almost never have trouble, because the mouse or the KB wake the iMac. So it always takes them over, I think, even if the iBook is around? Mmmm, I should play with this more. Now I'm confused. It seems to me that if I click on my mouse, which is paired to both, it wakes the iMac, even if the iBook is already awake. I could be wrong about this. That doesn't exactly seem to make sense.

Only once, my iMac very briefly lost touch with my kb and mouse. And I had no input device for a moment. Freakadelic!

 

[Betateam]

Ya the more I think about it, the more it won't work. Lets say for instance it would work when the KVM was on computer #1 then computer #2 would not know not to take input from the mouse. So computer #2 would be taking all the mouse clicks. Who knows what the random clicks and keyboard input would do. Thanks for the effort.

 

[steelphantom]

Synergy might work in this situation, although I'm not sure if it will work with bluetooth peripherals.